Well i haven't posted on here in a long while but with the season wrapping up all i can think about are feathers and blue bird days.

It's been interesting to say the least, at times I found myself almost wishing for conditions like we had the year before to cull some of the less motivated and fair weather fowl enthusiasts away from my favorite holes. This year of plenty (water) brought everyone with a duck call and a gun out to the lake. I had a group of seven set up 30 yards from me on an acre marsh a half hour before legal shooting time on my second hunt.

I took my 6 y/o son on his first actual duck hunt and he loved every minute of it and won't stop asking when we are goin again.

I hope you all had as much fun afield as we did and i wish you the best of luck with in these few remaining days.

I found myself almost wishing for conditions like we had the year before to cull some of the less motivated and fair weather fowl enthusiasts away from my favorite holes.

When we got the big freeze earlier this month it did for us...we hunted during the 2 coldest mornings, 2 degrees and 11 degrees with a negative wind chill, and we were the only group hunting in the area. As soon as it thawed out the yahoos started coming out of the woodwork, backpacking in from everywhere, coming in boats, and they had zero success. Pretty satisfying that we got to shoot quick limits on the cold days, and no one else got anything when the weather got comfortable enough for them.

UmatillaJeff wrote:By his very nature this tends to be a modest man who is loved by woman, children and dogs and well though of in all social circles.We will call him the 10ga man

This is season number 20 for me and it has been the best. I've probably had a season or two with better overall numbers, but I've had hunts this year I will never forget. I shot 4 new species of birds this year which is still hard for me to believe. The only downside is I may have to take out a loan to pay my taxidermy bill.

Here are the two newest I'm adding to the wall. I fired two shots Monday and killed my first Greater Scaup and the best looking redhead I've ever taken.

Funny how people who hunt in the same region have drastically different results during a season. Seems like every year the people on here that have a great season are different people than the previous one. Not sure how to classify my season yet. November was slightly above average, December was awful, January has been better than recent years, although I haven't been able to hunt hardly at all the last few weeks. Definitely had a couple/few hunts that I will never forget, that's for sure.

UmatillaJeff wrote:By his very nature this tends to be a modest man who is loved by woman, children and dogs and well though of in all social circles.We will call him the 10ga man

Did a hunt on private land this morning, someone in my group finally gained access, last weekend of duck season.We were expecting a duck hunt, but it turned into a goose hunt, never had a duck come near us.3 OK forum members here, okbucksnducks made the drive down. Wish we could've done more hunts with him this season, but at least this one was a good one. I think the landowner's wife was home, house was 600ish yards away, and if she was watching our hunt it had to have looked hilarious. I was using a fishing pole with a big weight and hook to retrieve a goose that had sailed and died on the middle of a frozen pond closer to the house, after 20 min of frustration I finally hooked a foot and got it in, almost broke the line too.Okbucksnducks was following another cripple on foot that was heading back towards the decoy spread, the goose crested a hill for about one second before getting blasted by a 10ga, causing a cloud of feathers that looked like someone ripped open a down pillow. One of the funniest things I've seen this season for sure.Another one of us tried to get out of their layout blind, fell out of it and rolled down a hill and took out about 10 decoys in the process.Also had a group of geese trying to land in the decoys with a white 3/4 ton diesel truck parked in the landing zone.

Probably my last hunt of the season, best last hunt of the season for me in a long time.

UmatillaJeff wrote:By his very nature this tends to be a modest man who is loved by woman, children and dogs and well though of in all social circles.We will call him the 10ga man

JDog wrote:This is season number 20 for me and it has been the best. I've probably had a season or two with better overall numbers, but I've had hunts this year I will never forget. I shot 4 new species of birds this year which is still hard for me to believe. The only downside is I may have to take out a loan to pay my taxidermy bill.

Here are the two newest I'm adding to the wall. I fired two shots Monday and killed my first Greater Scaup and the best looking redhead I've ever taken.

That is a stud redhead. I have one like it mounted. I've never shot a greater. I've only seen them once. It was when I went to a pond to fish in March a few years ago. At least 50 were on it.

assateague wrote:Eff a pintail. When I kill one, I'm going to dance a jig over its carcass.

shoveler_shooter wrote:Funny how people who hunt in the same region have drastically different results during a season. Seems like every year the people on here that have a great season are different people than the previous one. Not sure how to classify my season yet. November was slightly above average, December was awful, January has been better than recent years, although I haven't been able to hunt hardly at all the last few weeks. Definitely had a couple/few hunts that I will never forget, that's for sure.

How true. Personally, numberwise, this was my worst duck season in over a decade (though still in triple digits for ducks). Did a lot of zigging when I should have been zagging; seemed my days off to hunt were always during the 70 degree plus days and days I had to work were the 30 degrees and less days; DD galore, and while I am used to yahoos/newbies/DDs and can enjoy their antics, I had MANY a hunt outright ruined by "out of control" idiots.

I am still simply amazed at the utter lack of birds I/we saw the last four days. I hunted 3 very seperate spots that are on my "A" list those days and never shot the gun. Unheard of in my experience. We even cut a nice hole in the middle of duck heaven WDU (including a 200 + yard path out to the spot). While that WDU might slow down from time to time during the season, I saw maybe 12 distant ducks all morning......twelve. Crazy.

Still, a good year, as is any I can get out with friends and chase birds. As long as nothing "bad" happens, it is always a good year. Highlight of my season, other than finally hunting with "the Dude", was the "secret mallard hole" the duck Gods showed me. Took a nice number of mallards out of it while it was hot. Absolute highlight was at that hole where XR2 and I had an in-your-face dart of about 50 mallards; we each shot twice and laid out six drake mallards to fill our mallard limit. Good thing we had the sense to stop shooting after 2 shots each. I'll never forget that dart - burned in my memory forever.

Worse part of this season is that it was my last to hunt with a good friend and yellow dog as he is being stationed elsewhere.

Pro Staff to nothin'Sponsored by nobodyI just do it.......Duckin' Crazy!

They say there is "a fine line between genious and insanity". That's the line I live on.DW

Bummer year basically because I got out a lot less in your wonderful state than I have in previous years. Topped it off by accidentally knocking my gun barrel off my back deck cleaning it last Sunday and bulged the barrel inward at the muzzle. Seemed like a fitting end to 2013-2014 for me personally

Duck Whisperer wrote:Did a lot of zigging when I should have been zagging; seemed my days off to hunt were always during the 70 degree plus days and days I had to work were the 30 degrees and less days; DD galore, and while I am used to yahoos/newbies/DDs and can enjoy their antics, I had MANY a hunt outright ruined by "out of control" idiots.

That was probably a double whammy...for me this season has revealed "fair weather" hunters more than any other. I am used to encountering yahoos in almost all weather conditions, but the warmer days this season really seemed to bring them out in force. I don't normally use the term fair weather hunters because in my experience it's an inaccurate term, but this season it seemed to hold a lot of truth.

UmatillaJeff wrote:By his very nature this tends to be a modest man who is loved by woman, children and dogs and well though of in all social circles.We will call him the 10ga man

Duck Whisperer wrote:Did a lot of zigging when I should have been zagging; seemed my days off to hunt were always during the 70 degree plus days and days I had to work were the 30 degrees and less days; DD galore, and while I am used to yahoos/newbies/DDs and can enjoy their antics, I had MANY a hunt outright ruined by "out of control" idiots.

That was probably a double whammy...for me this season has revealed "fair weather" hunters more than any other. I am used to encountering yahoos in almost all weather conditions, but the warmer days this season really seemed to bring them out in force. I don't normally use the term fair weather hunters because in my experience it's an inaccurate term, but this season it seemed to hold a lot of truth.

On those days I loved it because my hole was the only one broke in the ice! Then again like Whisper alot of my first half opportunities were days when it was like 70s. Second half proved better. Boy did I do alot of hiking this year. I didn't take the boat out nearly as much.

Arise, Kill, and Eat. Acts 10:13

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Philp. 4:13

I apologize to those I have yet to offend. Wait just a little longer and I will get around to you too!!